Admiral relieved of command at Guantanamo Bay facility
WASHINGTON – The Navy fired the commander of the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba on Saturday for “loss of confidence in his ability to command.”
Navy Rear Adm. John Ring was relieved of his command after a military investigation, according to a Defense Department official who was not authorized to speak publicly. The nature of the investigation was not disclosed.
The facility’s deputy commander, Army Brig. Gen. John Hussey, was designated the acting commander.
Ring took command in 2018 of the task force that oversees the prison facilities at Guantanamo, which opened after the 9/11 terror attacks. Enemy combatants swept up on battlefields in Afghanistan were the first to arrive and were detained in chain-link fence cells. Those have been replaced by modern prison facilities.
The commander of Southern Command, Navy Adm. Craig Faller, relieved Ring. A statement from the command said the change in leadership “will not interrupt the safe, humane, legal care and custody provided to the detainee population at GTMO.”
Ring was commissioned in 1988 after going through the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps at the University of Arizona, according to a Joint Task Force Guantanamo biography. In 1990, he was designated a naval flight officer.
About 40 prisoners are held at the facility. At its peak, in mid-2003, it held nearly 700. Most of the prisoners have been returned to their native countries. Among those who remain is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is accused of plotting the 9/11 terror attacks.
The military tribunal set up to try Mohammed and others charged with terrorist acts has been stalled for years over issues such as evidence gathered during interrogations that included waterboarding.